Island Rush (44 page)

Chapter 46

I watched as Casey, muscles tight along his arms, put his strength behind the knife, driving it straight ahead through the air.  Passing a couple trees at a fast and smooth rate, the knife stopped instantly with the sound of it hitting the target.

Looking over to the tree supporting the blade, I smiled, seeing he did, in fact, hit the target.  It was too far away to see if he actually hit the specific mark he was aiming for.  I glanced over to his still form before he started moving forward.  We both walked to where our target tree was, and I smiled at the sight.  The blade was wedged in a circle surrounded by larger ones we carved into the tree. 

Four days or so ago, we took the knife and made a target in the woods.  We decided that it would be best to carve the target in the tree similar to how a dart board looked.  We started by carving a large circle in the bark.  After the largest circle was made and clear enough to see from far away, we continued.  Cutting another thick and clear circle within that one, we carved a third one in the center.  It was the one Casey managed to start consistently hitting today.  Guess days of practice and missing most of the time paid off.

Each time we consumed berries, it made us more nervous.  In a day or two, there will be none left.  We needed to learn how to fish as soon as possible.  We were desperate to learn how to find other food, and the obvious thing was to learn how to fish.  We were both certain there had to be other animals deeper on this island, but we had no clue what animals.  Going after fish seemed to be the best thing to do but going to the ocean and trying that wasn’t the most efficient way to do that yet. 

We took turns like before.  For the past thirty minutes, it had been Casey’s turn.  He threw the blade from several yards away and hit the small circle on the tree for the fourth time in a row.  I stared at the blade buried in the wood where it stuck, surrounded by all the little marks we made with days of hitting the tree. 

Now looking at the blade as it hung onto the tree, I glanced back to Casey.  He smirked and spoke, mocking me,  “I guess I am Mr. Perfect.”  I couldn’t blame him for saying that.  If I started to finally hit a target after so much work, I would brag too.

I jokingly slapped his arm before I turned back to the tree.  I grasped the handle of the knife, moving my arm up and down until it came loose.  “Let me hear that when we eat some fish,” I teased.  Unfortunately, though, that was true.  Practicing this way was not like fishing.  For one, we are throwing a knife at a tree.  Trees don’t swim and move fast like fish.  This was helping though because it allowed us to learn the amount of force we should put behind a throw as well as how to properly aim.

He shrugged,  “I think someone is just jealous. I’m perfect at this while you suck greatly, my dear.”

He took my hand, holding it in his as we began to walk.  We started to walk back to where we came from several yards, and even further back. Every time we would hit the target, we had to throw from a greater distance the next time. 

I looked up at him and said sarcastically, “Wow, suck greatly while you are perfect.  I feel great about myself.”

“I think it’s only fair that I’m perfect.  You are perfect all the time and at everything.”

I blushed, “Oh come on!  I’m on the verge of insanity, made you feel guilty for months, and nearly killed us because of a stupid stunt which gave you an awful scar.  Trust me, you are perfect all the time, not me.”

I felt his hand squeeze mine.  He looked down to me, his eyebrows dipped but a smile still on his lips.  “How do you think you are still going crazy?  The vivid dreams, hallucinations, your feelings?”

I nodded, waiting to see how he was going to try to convince me I wasn’t insane.  I know what he told me before, and I understood. When it came to seeing my mom’s body those few times here, he mentioned that it could be because I was forcing myself to remember.  But I knew that didn’t mean I was sane.

“When was your last dream?”  We had stopped, now far enough back to where he was going to throw it again. 

I looked up into his eyes and saw his confidence there.  The confidence that I was completely wrong.  I thought back to the last dream I had, and I realized something I hadn’t before.  The more I started to fall for Casey, the worse the dreams got.  Time went on here and somewhere along the line, my mind started to process everything.  Mom’s death, my family’s impossible betrayal, and the realization that we were stuck on an island.  Here with Casey, I could let it all sink in, and that’s where it all came from. 

With my mind in that state, I understood now why my dreams got worse and led to realistic hallucinations.  I became more depressed in a sense.  I started to fall for him, which made me feel worse.  Time went on and the more I fell for him, the more upset I became.  It led to my mind acting out.

It wasn’t insanity. If it were, I would still have had the dreams after he told me he loved me.  Being together secured something within me.  Though I am still accepting what happened, I no longer felt that aching feeling I got knowing I couldn’t have him.  Now, I had him, and there have been no dreams, no sign of such. 

I stared at him, again trying to accept something I hadn’t seen coming.  Somehow, he saw that was the truth and put all he had behind it.  It was such a shock.  After all this time, I thought I was going insane while he had me figured out.

“I’m not insane,” I shook my head and couldn’t tear my eyes away from his. 

“You accepting your life and my effect on it,” He continued on from that.  “As for your other ’screw ups’ in life?  You made me feel guilty.  That’s not an exaggeration,” he chuckled.  “It’s my own fault for falling for you while with Jill when I was a teacher.  Sure, you’re the reason for me being guilty.  However, if I weren't guilty, that would mean I would have never had feelings for you in the first place.  It was worth it. As for that stunt, that’s obvious.  Where would we be right now if you didn’t do that?  We probably wouldn’t be together, and your dreams would have probably continued because of that.  Was it worth it to be together?  For me it was.  It was dumb, but it resulted in me opening my eyes.”

I was beyond blown away at how he could pinpoint everything.  How he figured out all that about my mindset and sanity.  It was just fascinating to hear how he thought I didn’t do anything wrong.  “Yeah but if I didn’t do that, you wouldn’t have gotten hurt.  You have hurt so much for me whether it was worth it or not.”

His eyebrows dipped in thought.  The smile on his face faltered a little bit as he looked me closer in the eyes.  “You... blame yourself?  For me getting hurt?”

“It was my fault,” I swallowed, finding my voice. “It was hard, Casey.  To see you every day with that cut and knowing it was because of me.  You couldn’t do anything, couldn’t move or help or anything.”

“I know that.  Tell me something right now,” he grasped both of my shoulders and looked harder into my eyes.  “Being here now, being together, is it worth what happened?”

It sounded terrible, but I had to tell him the truth.  “Yes.  It was worth it, that stunt, and the cut you received from it.”

His lips tilted upward.  “I know it was.  It was worth it for me too.”

I chuckled, unable to stop myself.  “That just proves it!  How perfect you are.  I mean… wow,” I breathed.  “How were you able to figure all of that out about me?  How were you able to see the reason behind my dreams, behind everything?  It’s pathetic in a way that you understand me more than I know myself.  You are the perfect one.”

“I don’t see how I’m the perfect one.  Give me a few small quick examples.”

“Well, you are an excellent dancer, you are very strong - physically and mentally.  You can hit that target every time now, make a spear, teach and have the patience for it…”

I paused, looking up at his sneaky expression, “Well, that’s nothing compared to you.”

I went on, willing to prove how awesome he really was.  “You admit your mistakes, you don’t judge, you are extremely sweet, make me feel at home and happy again, and you know the value in life.  You are funny, and you show me a good time.”

He stood there, nodding,  “What else?”

“You being guilty makes you that much more perfect because you are only human.  You know how to treat women right, say the right things at the right time, are not afraid to say what you mean, and do what you think is right.  You show support, give love--”

I cut myself off at the realization of what he was doing.  To that list, you could add sneaky.  Pausing in my ramble, I glared up at him, and I saw he noticed I figured out his game and broke into laughter.  I smacked his arm as he continued chuckling, backing away from my playful fist.

“You bastard!  That was unfair!  I bet you think you’re
so
cool now.”  After all, he did goad me into telling him all these wonderful things about him just to hear it.

“Yeah, pretty much.  Thank you, though.  I feel better about myself,” he teased.

I chuckled.  “You never had doubt to begin with.”

Smiling, he turned back to facing the target and took a breath, exhaling slowly.  He moved his arm with the knife back and over his head.  Taking a step forward, he swung his hand forward and released the knife towards his goal.  The knife was a blur before we watched it stop, the blade digging into the wood of the tree, the smallest circle surrounding it.  He hit the perfect mark again, and I looked up at him smirking.

It wasn’t a surprise, seeing as he was now perfect at this part but there was more to hitting a target other than aim and throw, especially when our actual target would be moving.

“Okay, you’re obviously good with this part,” I said as we retrieved the knife and went back to where we stood before.  “You now need to somehow do it while moving or have the target moving.”

He nodded, “Should I run and throw?”

I shrugged “Try it.”

With that, he took a couple steps back and held the knife at his side.  He looked ahead and observed where he would run and how he would do this.  A second later, he looked back at me, “Stay back because I have no idea how this will turn out.”

I nodded and watched him, waiting for him to go.  He took a few steps back again as he studied the distance.  Then, after a breath, his legs and feet were in motion, running fast ahead towards the tree.  I watched as he sprinted forward, the knife grasped in his hand.  Still several yards back, he started moving more to the left.  Then, his arm rose as he ran and struck it forward, letting the knife go as he ran.  I didn’t see it hit the tree.  I didn’t even see where it went.  

Casey slowed to a stop and jogged back to the target, wanting to see if the knife was lodged in the bark.  Seeing it wasn’t there, he looked around as I began to walk forward, my eyes scanning the ground and looking for the blade.

Scanning over the forest with him, I finally found it.  It was lodged into the bark of another tree.  It was much further from the target than I expected.  It made me want to smirk,  “I found it!”

I took the handle and pulled it out of the bark, turning to see him standing ways away.  He saw me and stared at the knife in my hand with disgust.  He began to walk over to me and saw where I pulled it from.  His face made me so amused, I had to laugh. 

“Well my fucking…” he mumbled, taking in an uneasy breath of anger.  He turned around and walked back to the tree we drew our target on and I followed after.

“Well, at least your ego died a little.  It was pretty high up!”

“Ha… ha!” he said sarcastically.  

Thinking beyond this amusing moment, it made me ponder over something else, “I don’t know if this is the right way to practice considering most of the time, we won’t be moving; the fish will be.”

“Yeah but how else would we practice?”

“Well, until we can figure out how you should practice by moving and throwing.  Maybe not running but maybe just walking at first.  I still need to try hitting the target standing still,” I scoffed. 

He nodded and handed me the knife, “It’s your turn.  I have an idea on how to make the target moving until then, you practice.”

“How are you going to make that happen?”

“You’ll see,” he said as he turned and started to walk back towards camp.